The evening is coming to an end and you and your responsible group – who have only had a couple of drinks in between the lively conversation at a local bar – get into your cars and drive home.

It’s now 1:30 a.m. and you’re a few minutes from home but traffic on the major street you’re traveling is coming to a stop.

That’s when you notice the lights, the police officers, the makeshift holding stations, the tow trucks – you’re caught in a DUI checkpoint.

“Some people come through and they’re in a hurry and they’re frustrated,” Ontario police Officer Craig Ansman said.

But the fear, frustration and anxiety associated with DUI checkpoints seems small in comparison to the amount of damage caused by impaired drivers.

Each year, thousands of people die in alcohol-related collisions.

In 2007, the most recent year for which totals are available, 12,998 people died as a result of drunken driving, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration.

Law enforcement officials and citizens alike agree it is a problem, but that is where the formalities stop – the groups can’t seem to decide on a way to curtail the problem.

Law enforcement officers said they support sobriety checkpoints because the concentrated areas help catch a number of drunken drivers, as well as other motorists who may be breaking the law.

But with checkpoints costing between $6,000 to $9,000 and roving patrols in the low hundreds, there are advocates who question whether DUI checkpoints are the best way to go.

Police insist they are.

So far this year, San Bernardino police have made 37 DUI arrests and 54 other arrests during 10 state-funded sobriety checkpoints or saturation patrols. Sixteen of the drunken drivers were nabbed at DUI checkpoints.

Sgt. Rich Lawhead said the checkpoints are important because they monitor all motorists, including those who are driving with a suspended license or may not have their children buckled in properly.

“These target all those people and those are the people that are causing a drain on public safety systems,” Lawhead said.

Officers working this year’s checkpoints have also issued 317 vehicle code violations and impounded 108 vehicles.

A benefit of the checkpoints is that drivers are often unsure of when and where they may get caught at a sobriety check, something Ansman calls the “fear of the unknown.”

“A lot of people ask, `Where’s the checkpoint going to be?’ People want to avoid them,” Ansman said. “I tell people, `If you’re in a taxi cab, you have nothing to worry about.”‘

Drivers have mixed reactions when it comes to DUI checkpoints.

Edgar Granados, a big rig driver who moved along until his turn came to show his license to police at a recent DUI checkpoint, said he is opposed to checkpoints.

Diana Hernandez, on the other hand, said the checkpoints are effective because they dissuade people from getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Officials from the American Beverage Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based restaurant trade association, said checkpoints are an ineffective method in preventing alcohol fatalities.

“Cops are pulled off the street and stand in one spot in hopes the drunken drivers come to them,” Sarah Longwell, managing director of ABI, said.

There are a number of reasons why checkpoints don’t work, Longwell said.

“Only the dumbest drunken driver would get caught up in the checkpoints,” she said. “The majority of drunken drivers simply go around them.”

Longwell said there are better alternatives to stop drunken drivers from reeking havoc on the roadways – roving patrols and education.

She said she is more comfortable with the idea of putting officers on the streets in their patrol cars so they can be looking for dangerous activity like speeding cars and distracted, drowsy or drunken drivers.”

“If they are out, they’ll catch them,” she said.

Sgt. Don Lupear, who is in charge of Highland’s traffic division, said DUI checkpoints are a useful tool but it is also important to be looking for impaired drivers all the time.

That is why there is one sheriff’s deputy assigned to drunken driving patrols Wednesday through Saturday evenings.

“On a good night, he’ll get three drunk drivers but usually it’s two or one,” Lupear said. But with checkpoints, “in one night in one place, we’re getting a number of drunk drivers off the street and sending a message, too.”

In 2008, deputies in Highland hosted five DUI checkpoints and checked 3,868 vehicles. It resulted in 24 drunken driving arrests, 96 other arrests and 76 citations for unlicensed drivers or those driving on a suspended license.

Sgt. Michael Olivieri with the Pomona Police Traffic Services said he believes both programs, checkpoints and patrols, are necessary for safe streets.

Many law enforcement agencies will conduct patrols in addition to checkpoints throughout the year.

Checkpoints are more successful at increasing public awareness and deterring drunken driving, Olivieri said. Saturation patrols are more successful at capturing drunken drivers, but less effective at educating the public.

“We look at (checkpoints) as a great education opportunity,” he said. “If 3,000 people pass through a checkpoint, then we are able to make contact with those 3,000 people.”

“Checkpoints show the public we’re out there.”

From May 28 to June 1, during high school graduation season, a Fontana police DUI saturation patrol resulted in 10 drunken driver arrests and 25 citations.

During the patrol, 80 vehicles were stopped and 27 field sobriety tests were conducted, according to a Fontana police news release. Police officers made one additional arrest for another traffic violation and impounded two vehicles.

While many look at DUI checkpoints as a means to screen vehicles and get impaired drivers off the road, law enforcement officials want motorists to remember the emotional side of the program.

Checkpoints are set up “to reduce the amount of pain and suffering and deaths that results from impaired driving,” California Highway Patrol Officer Jeff Briggs said.